


Echoes

by PoisonJack



Series: Not a god, just a man [2]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Established Relationship, General au, Good boyfriend Rhys so sweet, M/M, Rhys the human comfort blanket, Wow Jack actually has remorse and guilt and oh you're an actual person hahha, oh the angst and nightmares, post ep.4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 03:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5523014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack still has horrible recurrent nightmares from before. Rhys comforts him and gets him back to sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echoes

**Author's Note:**

> This popped into my head last night and I hurried up and scratched it down half asleep >_> Goes out to the anon who wanted some angst ages ago xD better late than never eh?

Jack woke himself up with an anguished noise, a single painful word on his lips as he regained consciousness from sleep.

_Angel._

He'd been having a horrible nightmare surrounding the events of her death before his current incarnation. He knew he was responsible; her voice on the recording and his own haunted his dreams always. That guilt would never leave him. But in the dream, he'd dreamt that it had been he who had personally killed her. Had torn her heart right out with his own hands and gloated about it; her death in the dream a combination with his own he had viewed over and over when Rhys had brought him back.

He was suppressing the urge to vomit as he sat up with his feet on the ground to the side of the bed, his hands on his head as it hung there in waking horror. He felt like he was still in the dream; his chest still hurt. He was covered in a cold sweat and he was shaking. 

God, his baby girl. Why did that have to happen? Goddamn vault hunters. Why had he insisted on watching those tapes? The pain. It felt like his own chest was ripped open. It felt real, all too real. His heart was racing and he felt all too raw.

Rhys stirred in the large bed, turning over and sleepily realizing Jack was sitting up, his body silhouetted against the view of space outside the window. "Jack?" his sleepy voice rasped, propping himself up in an addled haze. It was the middle of the night. What was Jack doing?

The cybernetic man reached for him, laying his flesh hand against the older man's back. His skin was clammy, and he was shaking. He didn't even respond to Rhys' touch.

The younger man inhaled and got himself up, knowing it had been a nightmare, and apparently a bad one. He threw his legs over the side of the bed, reaching for his metallic arm that was on the charger. He had a feeling the CEO required more attention than he could give with just the one arm.

It took him a moment since he was still half-asleep, though years of practice made for quick work, and he reattached the arm and was padding over to the other side of the bed in his boxers to stand before the older man.

"Jack? Hey?" He drew his metal hand through Jack's hair as he stood before him, and the CEO wrapped both arms around his middle, pressing his face against the younger man's warm skin.

Rhys could feel the edges of the mark that even genetics couldn't purge as Jack's face was against the soft skin of his belly. His face was wet with what was surely sweat, surely. And he shook as he held onto Rhys, his skin cool to the touch.

The younger man rubbed at his back and his hairline as the sweat on his skin dried, stayed that way with him a while just petting and reassuring him with murmurs. He stroked across his back with his hands, soothing fingers into his damp hair and willing it to dry. Once his face was dry against him, he urged the CEO back into the bed, climbing in with him.

He brought Jack's face to his chest, wrapped both arms around head and neck while he slung a leg over his hip, holding him completely while he still shook. Jack pressed his face into that skin, listening to Rhys' steady heartbeat, his own arms wrapped around Rhys like he was a life vest and Jack was sinking. The older man still shook, and Rhys was patient, comforting and warm against him, kissing his forehead and stroking his neck.

Rhys whispered his name as he pet him, hummed deep in his throat and stroked fingers through his hair as he wrapped himself around the older man as much as he could to comfort him. He kept stroking him even after he'd stopped shaking, and until Jack's breathing evened out again against his skin as he fell back asleep.

Rhys didn't know what had woken Jack up this time, and they wouldn't speak of it in the morning either, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that Rhys was there for him, there to chase away the cold and awfulness of the nightmares, and bring him some semblance of peace while he slept. 

Whatever haunted the CEO during his sleeping hours, the man kept to himself. But what Rhys _could_ do was hold him, offer comfort, and at the very least keep the bad dreams at bay while he cocooned himself around the older man.

Even if he couldn't do away with the nightmares, put an end to the tossing and turning or the way the man sometimes woke gasping for breath, there _was_ something he could do; soothe the frown from his sleeping face, kiss the grim set of his lips, and be a source of respite for the CEO-- those were all within his power.

Jack didn't remember his dreams in the morning, or if he even _had_ dreamed after he'd woken up. But Rhys was wrapped around him, and he was warm and comfortable.

He buried his face back into the younger man's neck and gathered the blankets around them. He thought he felt Rhys smile against his temple, and the younger man's arms tightened around him as they both fell back asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Shortest thing I've written to date :O Poor Jack D: 
> 
> Hey lil mama come whisper in my ear http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com


End file.
